Tuesday
22nd Jun 2021
In its quest for a quick deliverable in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Union is trying to broker a deal that risks entrenching the power of Croat nationalists who are resisting moves to make the country more functional.
Today (15 December) I come to Brussels with a simple purpose: to present the credentials of my country, Montenegro, to become the next member state of the European Union, writes prime minister Zdravko Krivokapic.
Its language and history give North Macedonia its identity for president Stevo Pendarovski, but, for Bulgaria, neither of them are real, in a dispute holding up EU enlargement.
It is high time Europe makes cultural and historical dialogue part of its enlargement process in the Balkans, following the debacle on Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
The EU is eager to claim that this step means that one of the 14 key conditions from the May 2019 European Commission Avis to achieve candidate status has been met. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from truth.
EU national politics and leaders' personal ambitions have become its real enlargement criteria, in sad times for the European dream.
Politically-motivated justice, the capture of state institutions by the private interests of oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, rapid socio-economic decline, and increased corruption, all are making Georgians hopeless about their future, writes former Georgian ambassador to the EU.
The current Bulgarian veto of North Macedonia's EU accession process partly focuses on 19th century rebels who fought Ottoman rule in the area then known as Macedonia, which included North Macedonia and parts of modern Bulgaria and Greece.
The Office of the High Representative, tasked with coordinating international actors and ensuring implementation of the non-military components of the 1995 Dayton peace accords, has languished for a decade and a half.
Starting EU accession talks with Skopje was meant to be a technicality, but it is turning into a new fiasco on EU enlargement, dragging in Hitler, Stalin, and Tito.
Now, in a country which the European Union often holds up as an example of its success story - Georgia - something has gone very wrong.
While the EU's enlargement progress reports have moved closer to capturing the problems of the region, they are still lagging behind in capturing the decline of democracy and rule of law in most of the region.
The EU's future relations with both the eastern and southern neighbourhood are at stake. A wrong signal to Belarus would be a wrong signal to all of the Eastern Partnership
Spain would be prepared to recognise Kosovo if it clinched a deal with Serbia, Madrid has said, in the first positive signal of its kind since EU-brokered talks resumed.
Kosovo will do its part, but it needs help from Germany to realise its potential as a member of the Euro-Atlantic community.
Despite the façade of democracy, the impunity of political and economic power makes corruption the point of politics in Bosnia, as in Lebanon.
Visa-free travel by Kosovo passport-holders would be an important confidence-building measure, creating a positive atmosphere for negotiations. What Serbia wants is less clear.
An EU war-crimes tribunal has publicly stigmatised Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi on alleged "murders" and "torture", wrecking US plans for a Western Balkans summit.
Belarus' incidence of the disease is currently higher than in Italy. Ukraine and Azerbaijan have counts comparable to Poland and the Czech Republic, where the outbreak had an average intensity. Whereas, Georgia compares well with Greece and Slovakia.
Restarting talks on Serbia relations will be the new Kosovo prime minister's top priority, he said, but will the EU or the US lead the process?
The EU has agreed to open accession talks with two Western Balkan states in a "strategic" move to be rubber-stamped on Wednesday (25 March).
The EU is preparing to open talks with North Macedonia and Albania next week after France and the Netherlands got what they wanted.
The EU could blow up the Kosovo-Serbia negotiations' reset. Should Miroslav Lajčák indeed be appointed, the two senior EU diplomats dealing with Kosovo would both come from the small minority of member states that do not recognise Kosovo.
North Macedonia is heading for its "dirtiest ever" election, its prime minister has warned, as Europhiles prepare to take on nationalists.
The US has declined to rule out a land swap between Kosovo and Serbia - despite German opposition to the controversial idea.
Western Balkan secret services have handed over more the 250 alerts on suspected foreign terrorist fighters since last summer - fed into the EU's police database by the Czech Republic, according to a confidential document seen by EUobserver.
The Kosovan former ambassador to the EU, and previously EU integration minister for her country, warns that tweaks to the enlargement process could cause confusion and overlap with existing procedures.
Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would make sure Scotland stays as close to EU regulations as possible after Brexit, with the aim of rejoining the bloc, once Scotland is independent.
The European Commission just missed an opportunity on managing EU enlargement. Instead of taking a hard look at why it's currently failing, the commission tried to appease the most vocal opponent of enlargement – France – with largely cosmetic changes.
The EU Commission proposed tweaks in the accession process to overcome the French objection to opening accession talks with Nothern Macedonia and Albania by May.
"Brexit means Brexit" - but many Brits are still wondering what it means as their country left the European Union on Friday.
EU hopefuls will know more about the hoops they will have to jump through in future when the European Commission publishes its new "enlargement methodology" this week.
The EU can hardly criticise Eastern Partnership countries for disrespecting media freedom. Five EU member states, including current presidency Croatia, came below Armenia and Georgia in the 2019 RSF Press Freedom Index. Bulgaria ranked nine places behind Ukraine.
